Coincidence
So, you know the Powerpuff Girls (2016) show that I reviewed an episode from a few days ago? Yeah, well shortly after I made that episode, the show released the episodes "Viral Spiral" and "Bubbles of the Opera" and the turn around in quality is so strong you could get whiplash. These two episodes are actually good. It could totally be a fluke, as even Teen Titans Go has managed to pull out a good episode once in awhile, but it might be the first climb out of "early installment weirdness." All I know is that these two episodes prove what the show can do, and should be the standard that the show should be held up to. They're not perfect obviously, but there is actually quality. And both of these episodes showcase Bubbles in a very strong role. "Viral Spiral" is an episode about the girls going into the internet to stop the Amoeba Boys, and if that's all you knew about the episode you'd probably be hesitant considering the rest of the show. However, I think it really works. Instead of just lol reference ''it actually has something to do with the plot. If I could describe it, it's like the episode from the ''Teen Titans where Control Freak brought the titans into television to mock their conventions. Except here, it's the internet. And it works, and this feels like what they should be doing when they want to "bring the show into the 21st century." It's hard to describe why something like this works in pure text alone, so forgive me if I'm not that convincing. Also, this episode is (hopefully) the first appearance of a new villain Silicone. Yes, yes, this is how you introduce a new villain. I think that if the ads for this episode had him instead of just the Amoeba Boys, the ads would be a little better received. Not that the guy actually does much. He basically walks up to the Amoeba Boys and says "hey you, go shut down the internet because it will annoy the Powerpuff Girls" but, his plan does actually seem nefarious in a realistic sense (they talk about the actual consequences of shutting down the internet, like the satellites crashing kind of consequences) and they just make him seem very intimidating. "Bubbles of the Opera" is also a good episode, if you can tolerate a little bit of gross out at the beginning. It almost seems like a deconstruction of what they were doing with the girls in the earlier episodes - just basically defining them by one trait and turning it up to the extreme. So, when a character defined by her cuteness loses it... she ends up turning into a villain and joins Mojo Jojo, and he gets some good moments, although it might be a little telling that Dark Bubbles has been the most difficult villain for the others to defeat so far. These episodes aren't amazing. Like, they wouldn't end up on a "Top 10 Powerpuff Girls Episodes of All Time" list, but they're good. And if you want to give this version of the show a chance in the truest sense, I'd recommend watching these episodes. At the very least, they're a good sign, and it'll be interesting to see which direction the show goes in. I'm probably still going to be annoyed at the behind-the-scenes stuff, and the marketing though. For instance, the only thing we knew about 'Viral Spiral" before it aired, was the mojo meme generator... and within the context of the episode, it fits because it's important to the plot that Bubbles is both good at programming and internet savvy. Once again, hard to explain through text alone. No, I don't think I'm going to drop everything and make a video review of these episodes. It's a little soon for that, and there's always the possibility that they'll come up with a better episode. It's strange and exciting though and these episodes do feel like the writers are trying to step up their game. Feeling: Satisfied Working on: Growing Around novel. Now 30 pages in (12.5k words) Category:Miscellaneous